Stripping mechanism for cardi ng-engi n es



(No Model.)

A. FALLS. STRIPPING MECHANISM FOR OARDING ENGINES.

Patented May 28, 1889.

WI'LI'lE-E 5E5 idwa N. PETERS Pho'biilhugraphur, Wishingion. DIE

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALONZO FALLS, OF LO\VELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

STRIPPING MECHANISM FOR CARDlNG-ENGINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 403,931, dated May 28, 1889.

Application filed January 25, 1889. Serial No. 297,568x (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALONZO FALLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lowell, in. the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Stripping Mechanism for Caroling-Engines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mechanism for stripping the flats of carding-engines; and it consists in the improvementhereinafter described and claim ed, whereby a single stripping mechanism serves to strip both the top flats and the under flats of a carding-engine.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of so much of a carding-engine provided with my improvement as is necessary to the understanding of said improvement; Fig. 2, a rear elevation of the cross-girth which connects the sides of the carding-engine and some of the adjacent top flats and under flats, showing also the frame of the stripping mechanism, omitting the top rail of said frame and the lifter and liftingpins at opposite ends of said cross-girth; Fig. 3, a side elevation of a part of the rack and the traverse-pinion; Fig. 4, a broken Vertical section of a part of the frame 011 the line 00 a; in Fig. 1, showing the rack in section in its upper part, and the lower part of the same in rear elevation, showing the spring-box and one of the rods with its spring.

A represents the frame of the carding-engine; A, the upper arch or the arch; A the lower arch; A, the cross-girt; 13, the top flats; B, the under flats; O, the main shaft, all of the usual construction and operation in what are known as under-flat carding-engines, as shown in United States Patent No. 166,089, granted July 27, 1875, to John F. Foss, and a reissue of the same patent, No. 7,399, dated November 28, 1876.

The stripping mechanism, including the frame D, stripper-arm (l, stripper d, lifter (Z the stripping cam-gear F, the traverse-pinion g, traverse-rack G, with which the pinion g engages to move the stripping mechanism from one flat to another, the guard g and pinion 9 both turning with the traverse-pinion, and the pinion E,which actuates the stripping mechanism, said frame D swinging upon the main shaft 0 of the carding-engine, substantially as shown'in United States Patent No.16,50l, granted January 27, 1857, to George Vellman, are all of well-known construction and operation, most of said parts being duplicated on opposite sidesof the engine. In under-flat carding-engines, however, it has been customary to employ one set of lifters and strippers for the top flats, B, and another for the under flats, 13, both lifters being operated by the same cam-gear, F, the topflat lifters directly thereby and the underflat lifters by connection with said top-flat lifters, the top-flat strippers and under-flat strippers being operated by separate camgears, and the rack G has heretofore only been of the same angular measurement as the series of top flats, B.

The ordinary construction is expensive in first cost and liable to breakage and requires more power to run it than if a single stripper were used.

One difficulty in operating a single stripper upon all the flat-s of a top-flat and under-flat machine has heretofore been that while the top flats are seated or restored to position by gravity the under flats are seated by springs arranged outside the sides proper or card sides of the machine and between arc-shaped guide-flanges a on the card sides and the lower arches, A said springs being commonly spiral sprin l), surrounding the radial springrods 1) and compressed between the collars b secured on said rods, and the shorter curved side of the lower arch at each side of the machine, the outer ends of the spring-rods being each secured to one'of the under flats, and said rods being guided in radial holes in said flanges and lower arches, so that the entire distance across the machine between the outer sides of the lower arches, A is greater than the distance between the outer sides of the upper arches, A, by the thickness of the springboxes or spaces containing said springs, so that as the machine has heretofore been constructed a traverse-rack secured in the usual manner to the side of the machine above the girt A hereinafter described, Would need to be offset outward on reaching the lower arch, and the traverse-pinion, and consequently other parts of the stripping mechanism, would need to run in two planes and to shift from one to the other.

Another difficulty has heretofore been that the cross-girt A which is absolutely necessary to hold the sides of the carding-engine in place and to prevent the machine from flat, so that if a continuous rack were applied.

. to a carding-engine as heretofore constructed,

and, in conjunction with the traverse-pinion g and its operating mechanism, served to carry the stripper from one flat to another of the same set of flats, there would be no prob ability that after passing the girt the stripping mechanism would properly traverse from one flat to another of the other set if the teeth of the rack were arranged at equal intervals.

1 A thirdrdiificulty has been that heretofore the length of the girt A has been too great to allow the lifter to rise between the two sets of flats B B the length of the girt being usually that of a flat, so that the lifter in rising between the two sets of flats would be broken by the resistance of the girt.

The first difficulty is obviated by making an arc-shaped continuous rack, the workingsurface of which has the same angular measurement as all the flats B B and the girt A and which is parallel to a vertical plane at right angles to the main shaft, and is bolted to the arches below, and above the girt is supported by brackets 1 which are preferably east in one piece with the rack and are bolted to the side of the eardingengine. This rack (with the usual traverse-pinion and connected mechanism) causes the stripping mechanism to traverse from flat to flat along the whole are occupied by the flats.

The second difficulty is obviated by makingthe width of thegirt equal to the width of one or more flats, (the flats, both top flats and under flats, all being of the same width,) and in practice, in order to make the girt of sut'flcient strength, the width of the girt should be a multiple of and at least twice as great as the width of a flat. When this is done, the teeth or pins of the rack being arranged at equal intervals in the usual manner, the lifter will operate in precisely the same manner upon all the flats, either above or below the girt, raising but one at a time.

Lastly, the obstacle which the girt A presents to the rising of thelifters is surmounted by setting the lifters farther apart and by making the flats longer than said cross-girt A by an amount sufficiently greater than the length of the lifting-pins (Z on both lifters (Z to allow said pins to pass said girt A or (what comes to the same thing, in other respects, and has the advantage of not requiring the lifters to be set out fartherfrom the sides of the machine) by shortening the cross girt an equal amount, so that the ends of the flats project beyond the ends of said girt, allowing the lifting-rods, while inoving in their usual planes, to move the flats away from the arches and to return them to place again and to rise past the ends of the girts without touching the same. These three changes being made, a single stripping mechanism, such as is commonly used, is sufficient to strip all the flats (both top flats and under flats) at much less expense for construction, repairs, and driving-power.

In connection with the parts above described any so called quick stripping devices, such as are shown in United States Patents No. 365,250, dated June 21, 1887, and No. 382,598, dated May 8, 1888, may be used, and the traverse-rack shown in United States Patent No. 369,444, dated September 6, 1887, may be used in place of the rack herein shown to strip the flats nearest the feed-rolls oftener than the others.

It will be understood that the mechanism which causes the stripping mechanism to move from flat to flat is the same on both sides of the machine, there being two traverse-pinions and two parallel traverse-racks alike in all respects, except that one is righthanded and the other left handed. The mechanism which lifts the flats to be stripped is also alike on both sides of the machine.

I claim as my invention 1. The combination, with a series of top flats, a series of under flats, and a cross-girl; arranged between one and the other of said series, of a stripping mechanism having a traverse-gear and a traverse-rack measuring the same angular distance as said cross-girt and all of said flats, as and for the purpose specified.

2. The combination of the frame having a cross-girt, a series of top flats arranged above said girt, a series of under flats arranged belowsaid girt, all of said flats being of equal length with each other and each of said flats being longer than said cross-girt, and the stripping mechan ism having lifters provided with inwardly-projecting pins, each of said pins being of a length less than the distance to which said flats project beyond said girt, as and for the purpose specified.

3. The combination of a frame and card sides, a series of top flats seated by their own gravity, a series of under flats seated by springs arranged outside of the card sides, the upper arches, the lower arches arranged outside of said springs and projecting laterally beyond said upper arches, and a stripping mechanism having traverse-pinions and traverse-racks arranged on opposite sides of said frame and parallel to each other, said racks being secured at their lower ends to said lower arches and being provided at their upper ends with brackets, and said brackets being secured to said upper arches, as and for the. purpose specified.

In witness whereof I have signed this speciflcation, in the presence of two attesting witnesses, this 22d day of January, A. D. 1889.

ALONZO FALLS.

WVitnesses:

ALBERT M. MOORE, JOSEPH W. PIPER. 

